Character Design

Article: How KOTOR Laid the Groundwork for the Mass Effect Trilogy

Recently BioWare responded to the outcry for a more complete and comprehensive ending to Mass Effect 3. Most people appear to be satisfied with this new iteration, but there are still suggestions that the new ending remains inadequate because it's just a series of cinematics with a voiceover. Taking previous games into account, though, it's always been apparent as to what the new revision would be, and using the game story analysis skills...

Article: Game Story Design: Predicting a Game's Story Outcome

Video games in recent years have seen a trend toward greater depth in story development. Gaming has become more about immersion in a different world as technology advances and for most gamers this is best accomplished with a deep and encompassing story. While the gameplay mechanics of the Assassin's Creed franchise, or games in the Elder Scrolls universe (which we made even more...

Article: Game NPC Design - Why We Relate to A Pile of Code and Pixels

Designing a relatable non-player character for games isn't easy: As proposed in our "save your own damn world" post, NPCs and game stories in general can take a back seat to the mechanics-focused button-fest of modern design, sacrificing the emotive connection that is required to delve into a story.

Article: Preventing Video Game Burnout - Getting Too Bored, Too Fast

Members of the Gamers Nexus team will unanimously agree on one thing: We get bored of games faster than companies can make them. It's a problem we've opted to call "game burnout," and has side effects of empty wallets, rivers of tears, and wasted gigabytes. Thought Skyrim was good? Twenty hours was enough for me. Liked Battlefield 3? Eh, it was all the same after eighteen hours.

Article: The Do's and Don'ts of Scary Games

I've recently seen a trend in many horror games: They aren't scary... granted, this trend is scary in itself. This has been a problem ever since Resident Evil 4's launch back in 2005 and has only continued to get worse. In effort to help developers presently working on a horror title, such as Vivec Entertainment's upcoming Shadow of a Soul, I've compiled a list of...

Article: From Lyrics to Characters - Designing a Bard with Music

By using the lyrics of Iron Maiden's "Dance of Death," we help guide you through the process of creating a bard character that is horrified of dancing. The bard that doesn't dance -- how did that happen, anyway? Read on to find out. Fans of our level design series probably recall the first of the

Article: GN's Game Character Design Template

In preparation for our next installment in the From Lyrics to Levels series, I've put together a character design template with the fundamentals for any fantasy setting (though the template can be adopted for use elsewhere). The character design template gives you a format to address quintessential points for any character you're designing --...